Soundown coupling

[CraigA]

I am getting some wear on my Soundown drive coupling. Problem is on one engine (Cummins 330hp) on our 42GB. Seeing some of the thrust washer material coming out of the middle of the unit. I've talked to one of the factory reps and their only "recommended" solution is to take out the whole unit (200 lbs.), ship it to Mass. for a factory rebuild. A rebuild consists of installing two neopreme thrust bushings and spending 6 -8 hours in a machine shop to align the unit. Problem is our boat is in Mexico and shipping in and out is a big problem. Their feeling is that I should be able to run for some time before the problem becomes nasty and expensive. The plan is to run another 150 hours or so in Mexico and ship it to the Northwest in the spring. I'm sure I would have better resources up there.
I ordered the thrust washers and plan to try to install them in place if I have a complete failure. It looks pretty straight forward if I re-install the unit in the same spot and pay attention to proper torque specs for the bolts.
Does anyone have any practical experience with these units? My understanding it that they are used on a lot of Grand Banks similar to ours.
Thank you,
Craig

[sartorst]

Never mind I thought we were going to talk about something else!